## Nachricht vom 20.07.93 weitergeleitet
## Ursprung : /APC/GREENLEFT/NEWS
## Ersteller: greenleft@peg.UUCP
Homeless in their own land
As mining companies and reactionary politicians seek to portray
Aborigines as threats to the ``backyards'' of home owners, the
sad truth is that too many of Australia's traditional owners do
not even have a roof over their heads. In Brisbane's southern
inner city suburbs, an estimated 200 Aboriginal and Islander
people are homeless, and the problem is getting worse. ANTHONY
BROWN reports on homeless adults and Aboriginal street kids.
Not far from the West End cafes, the re-created rainforest and
lagoon-laden South Bank, underneath the William Jolly Bridge
where motorists listen to their radios in congested traffic,
Norman, 41, and Milly, 38, sleep.
They've been sleeping there for about 10 weeks now. Before that
they slept in a park by the river bank. They like to move around.
Norman says sometimes up to 165 people sleep underneath the
bridge in Grey Street, a small no-through street which runs off
Montague Road in South Brisbane's industrial area. Norman and
Milly sleep on a mouldy double foam mattress. The ground they
sleep on is covered in a whitish dust. It smells like a building
site. The Pioneer Concrete plant is to the left and the plant's
sand mountains to the right.
Norman says sleeping out is good. But every now and again they
get some ``real idiot'' who creates trouble and starts fights.
Milly says a couple of weeks ago two other homeless men burned
all their gear, leaving them with nothing. Norman and Milly
managed to scrounge clothes and bedding from relatives.
They say they get no trouble from the West End police. But every
now and again northside police officers come across to harass
them.
They have no toilet facilities. No bathroom. No place to cook. No
privacy. They wash and eat at one of the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander hostels or at
the nearby St Vincent de Paul's Homeless Men's Hostel. They spend
their days with other homeless Aboriginal and Islander people.
They like to go to Musgrave Park, where they are always sure to
catch up with someone.
Lyndell Turbane runs the Musgrave Park Aboriginal Corporation
(MPAC) hostel in Oxford St, South Brisbane. The hostel
accommodates 30 people: elderly men and women, single mothers,
single men and young couples. Most have been homeless at some
stage in their lives. Most are on some sort of welfare. One man
works. They pay $60 a week each for board and accommodation. Most
are permanent. Lyndell also has 10 fold-up beds which she uses to
put up people when conditions outside get too bad to sleep out.
South Brisbane, West End, Woolloongabba and Highgate Hill have
eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-
run hostels. People use hostels for permanent or semi-permanent
residence, as a cheap place to live and eat until they can get
enough money to move into their own accommodation, as a place to
stay while visiting Brisbane or for overnight shelter. The St
Vincent de Paul's hostel in South Brisbane also accommodates
Aboriginal men. MPAC's Drake Street drop-in centre in Highgate
Hill does not provide accommodation, but does provide facilities
for washing, cooking and some basic activities during the day.
``But there's still a large number who are sleeping on the river
banks. Also in empty houses, in empty factories, empty petrol
stations, wherever they can find shelter'', Lyndell says.
Kurilpa is the traditional Aboriginal name for the inner suburbs
of West End, South Brisbane and Highgate Hill; it means ``place
of the water rats''. It includes Musgrave Park. According to
Aboriginal history researcher Ray Kerkhove, this region,
especially Musgrave Park, is of immense social and cultural
significance to the Aboriginal community. This explains why it
has Brisbane's largest indigenous population and why it attracts
homeless people.
MPAC coordinator Pat Murdoch believes 200 Aborigines and
Islanders are homeless in the Kurilpa region. He says most of
them come from the reserves because there's nothing there for
them.
``They come down here thinking they might have a better chance in
the city. But they just get swallowed up in the city. Many come
because of job prospects, to see family, for health reasons, to
see friends'', Lyndell Turbane says.
Bert Fyscher, 44, comes from Cherbourg. He came to Brisbane to be
with friends. He lives on an invalid pension. He has been
homeless a few times and in Brisbane has slept at the river bank
and in deserted houses. He's now staying at the Musgrave Park
Hostel. He says life outside is hard and conditions are bad. His
only desire in life now is to have his own bed and regular meals.
Bill, 35, and Mrs Bill, 33 (they preferred not to give their
surnames), have been in Brisbane for three months, of which two
months they spent sleeping under the William Jolly Bridge. Bill
is from Western Australia and Mrs Bill from Mt Isa. They both
live off Bill's sickness allowance. They moved into the Musgrave
Park Hostel when beds became available.
Mrs Bill said it was extremely cold at night under the bridge.
Friends gave them mattresses and blankets, but these were not
enough to keep out the cold. Mrs Bill found it hard to adjust to
the hostel at first, and she spent the first few nights sleeping
on the floor rather than in a bed. They were in Brisbane to catch
up with family and friends. Both have been homeless for most of
their lives and agree that being homeless can get very lonely.
Lyndell Turbane says those looking for work often have little
chance of success.
``They discriminate against them when they're going for job
interviews. They discriminate against them when they're going for
accommodation. Just a lot of plain, everyday things that white
people take for granted, it's hard for us to get things.''
The result is that people give up. They get depressed and turn to
drink for consolation. They lose control of their lives.
Lyndell says a large number of homeless have become chronic
cases. These are men, women and increasing
numbers of children who have got used to the life outside and who
need specialised care and attention. They use the hostels like
drop-in centres and only sleep in when conditions outside get too
harsh or when they feel like it. Many are alcoholic and prefer to
sleep outside because they find it difficult to pay rent and
abide by the drinking ban in the hostels.
Selwyn Johnson is the manager of the 16-bed Born Free Club
hostel, Highgate Hill. He often gets homeless people coming to
the hostel to use its facilities during the day, and to eat and
wash.
``They come over for breakfast and dinner. That's what we're here
for. When it comes to crashing out, they just crash out in the
park.''
Florence Margaret Bargo is the welfare officer at the Day Centre,
St Vincent de Paul's Homeless Men's Hostel, South Brisbane. The
centre is a place where homeless people can get morning and
afternoon tea, watch television or play cards and pool. The day
centre is part of St Vincent de Paul's homeless centre, which
also provides meals and accommodation for the homeless.
Many Aboriginal homeless people come to St Vincent de Paul's for
meals, but few of them sleep there. Meals cost $1. Florence says
she has banned quite a few people for drunken behaviour.
Eddie Hopkins, 39, has been homeless ``nearly all my life''.
``Sometimes I sleep in Baynes Street (the Musgrave Park Hostel).
Sometimes I sleep under the bridges. Sometimes I sleep in
Musgrave Park.''
Eddie lives on sickness benefits. He says white people don't have
an inkling of how Aborigines live. ``From the southside to the
northside, we live in a very bad way.''
He would like to see a drop-in centre near Musgrave Park where
the homeless can spend their days.
Florence Hopkins believes that, for those who don't want to stay
in accommodation, there is a need for
some sort of outreach service which can provide them with
bedding, food and medical care.
Selwyn Johnson doesn't think the homeless need another drop-in
centre. ``There just needs to be more things available to them
when they need them. A place to stay. Another thing is that there
should be someone there to look after their health, because they
don't.''
Lyndell Turbane would like more hostels in the Kurilpa region.
She would also like more flats and houses to be available for
people to move out of the hostels into their own accommodation.
``What we'd like to do is find if they're coping all right in a
hostel, then the next step is to get them into their own flat or
house, and to try to start living independently.''
MPAC has helped a few homeless people settle into their own
independent accommodation. But she says the Aboriginal community
needs more funding if it is to get more people to live
independently.
Lyndell is critical of government assistance for Aboriginal and
Islander housing. ``We're not getting much help from Anne Warner
[Queensland minister for family services and Aboriginal affairs].
She's supposed to be there to help Aboriginal people. We get
nothing from her. We get nothing from ATSIC [Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Commission]. ATSIC is a joke.''
She says the problem is that ATSIC and state Aboriginal and
Islander Affairs make decisions on housing without bothering to
find out the needs of the Aboriginal community.
``They don't know what we want. They don't even mix in the
community. That's why a lot of the programs fail.''
*************
Street kids
``Booney'' comes from Cherbourg. He did schooling to grade 10,
but decided that was enough and didn't want to do any more. After
rows with his family came to a head in 1991, he left home for the
bright lights of Brisbane. He was 16. He slept where he could and
survived on the dole and by stealing. He and his mates used to
steal clothes, especially jumpers, to stay warm at night.
He's now off the streets, staying at his cousin's place in
Chermside. He reckons his life has changed because he has found
his Aboriginal identity. He now dances with the Wacca Wacca
Aboriginal dance group.
Black Community Housing Service president Mervyn Riley says an
increasing number of Aboriginal and Islander kids are homeless in
Brisbane.
``The majority of the kids that are out here on the streets now
come from the missions. A lot of them come from Cherbourg.''
He says the missions don't have much to offer teenagers, and many
find the attraction of life in the city too great.
Born Free Club hostel manager Selwyn Johnson says he's seen
children as young as 8 and 9 homeless.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth program officer Lewis
Orcher says many run away from home because of problems with
their families.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth Program is a
community-based organisation that runs a shelter for homeless
youth, Dundalli House, at Windsor. It also operates an outreach
service for street kids, when it can according to Lewis, and
tries to help them get off the streets and into education
programs.
Lewis says family problems and tension are caused by the
difficulties that Aboriginal and Islander people face in a
dominant European society.
Aborigines and Islanders are still discriminated against when
they go for jobs. The result is that many give up and are drawn
into a spirit-breaking life of dependency on social welfare
payments. He says these payments are not enough and that many
Aboriginal families live in poverty.
``Unemployment and a lack of finances put a helluva strain on
families.''
The victims are the children.
``One child told me the other day he'd dropped out of school
because it was too much of a strain for his mother to pay for his
school uniform and his books. So he decided to make it easy on
his mother and he dropped out of school.''
Sharlin Fisher, 16, left home after ``me mum bashed me up''. She
slept for a while in the Brunswick Mall in Fortitude Valley. But
she's now staying at the eight-bed Bahloo Woman's Youth Shelter
in Woolloongabba.
Mervyn Riley also blames the education system. ``That's why they
go out. There's nothing for them when they leave school. And they
know it. And the teachers know it.''
He says teachers treat Aboriginal and Islander children as dumb
and tend to give them up as a waste of time. The result is that
Aboriginal and Islander children give up school and wander onto
the street. The streets replace school as a place of learning.
``Our kids go from school to the jail. The people you see now in
prison are the homeless kids of the 80s.''
Aboriginal and Torres Islander Child Care Agency President Norm
Brown agrees. ``The young person now is a desperate young person.
He'll do anything. And when I say young person, that's black or
white or any colour. That's simply because there isn't anything
there for them to do.''
Norm says life on the street offers the illusion
of excitement. But street kids also feel sold out, that they are
in the predicament they're in because society offers them nothing
else.
Norm Brown says that aggravating the problems for young people on
the streets is constant police harassment.
Craig Fisher, 13, and Shannon Craig 15, tell of how, a few weeks
ago, they were arrested by Woolloongabba police officers for a
crime they didn't commit.
``One fellow broke into a house and they [the police] blamed me
and Shannon. They grabbed us by the shirt and took us to
Woolloongabba Police Station.''
There they were charged, and then questioned, fingerprinted,
photographed and locked in a cell. The charges were later
dropped.
Sharlin Fisher said the police harassed her all the time when she
was on the streets. ``They used to call me `black trollop'. Once
they were going to arrest me for jaywalking in the Valley.''
Mervyn Riley says because the amount of money kids receive in
social welfare is small, many are forced to survive by breaking
into houses and shops and stealing what they need.
``If they have to break into a home, it's to have a feed or to
take money to buy a feed.''
A child under 16 gets a young homeless allowance of $129 a
fortnight. From 16 to 17, it's $214 a fortnight.
Selwyn Johnson from the Born Free Club says the street kids
wander form hostel to hostel. Like most of the Aboriginal and
Islander hostels in the Kurilpa area, the Born Free Club puts up
Aboriginal and Islander street kids. But all these hostels are
designed to help adults and are not specialised to deal with the
problems that street kids have.
``They come and go. They get around. Sometimes they're at Born
Free. Sometimes at Musgrave Park Hostel. They got the youth
shelter (Dundalli House) and they go over there. But they come
back this way to roam around.''
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